


Ace of Hearts

by Hattingmad



Category: Heart no Kuni no Alice | Alice in the Country of Hearts
Genre: F/M, Yandere
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-08
Packaged: 2017-11-20 16:16:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/587302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hattingmad/pseuds/Hattingmad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ace has a secret. Alice is about to discover what it is. Spoilers for Ace's true nature.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Timekeeping

I was repairing a clock when it happened, keeping myself awake with the pot of coffee I’d made- about an 80 on the Julius scale- and rubbing at my tired eyes. Julius had only recently entrusted me with these minor repairs, and he was out on one of his infrequent errands, leaving me to wait up for his return. We’d managed to eke out a kind of peaceful co-existence as roommates, and while more of a hermit than I’d wish, Julius’s companionship was oddly comforting in this world gone mad, his diligence a stable point in my life here.

And recently there was Ace- the perpetually cheerful (and perpetually lost) knight in service to the Heart Castle, Julius’ friend. How the two of them got along was beyond me, but Ace had even managed a miracle in dragging Julius out to have a picnic with the two of us last week (or however time flows here).

A rustle of fabric by the door alerted me to Julius’s return. I reached for a fresh mug of coffee to give him and turned, greeting,

“Welcome home, Ju-” the words died on my lips as I stared at the grisly vision before me.

Shrouded in a blood-drenched grey cloak, the imposing figure wore a mask to cover his face. The mug dropped from my limp fingers and shattered on the floor, soaking the hem of my dress. I was too terrified to even scream, and just as well- who would have heard me? The clock tower was deserted, and in this violent place, I had no guarantees of aid.

“Who are you?” I choked out, wanting to know at least this before I died.

The figure cocked its gore-stained head at me, puzzled.

“Huh?” It said eloquently. “Oh, you mean this? Sorry-” and without further ado, the man removed the mask from his features.

“Ace!” I cried in equal parts relief and horror. “What happened to you? Where are you hurt? There’s so much blood…” I touched my hand to his cheek, and it came away wet.

He blinked at me for a moment, and then smiled his customary bright smile at me as if to reassure me.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. None of it’s mine,” he said carelessly, and bent down to help collect the pieces of mug from the floor.

“Oh, good,” I said automatically, “I’m so glad you’re safe-” then it hit me, and my finger slipped on a sharp ceramic edge, slicing a thin red line down to the second knuckle.

“Wait. If none of it’s yours,” I said slowly, “then how did it get all over your cloak?” Ace’s eyes narrowed slightly in concern.

“You’ve cut yourself,” he scolded me, avoiding my question.

His hand wrapped around my wrist as he drew my finger to his mouth and licked at the wound to heal it, watching my ever-reddening face all the while. It may have been my imagination, but it felt like he lingered over the wound for longer than was necessary.

My hands shook as he took note of the blood drying on my palms from touching him and slowly licked that clean as well, tracing my heart line and life line with a hot mouth. Inadvertently, my body was responding to his touch, and though the thought of him tasting a dead man’s blood on my skin was repulsive to me, my pulse pounded for a different reason entirely as he pinned me with his gaze. Some sick part of me was enjoying this interaction, and he knew it. I turned away first, too ashamed to speak.

He continued to hold my hand as he said lightly, “maybe you should cut down on the caffeine before bed, huh? It makes you jittery, and when you’re not careful, you can get hurt.” He laughed suddenly. “But of course you’re living with the workaholic coffee addict here, so don’t listen to anything I say, okay?” He smiled at me again and patted my shoulder.

I refused to flinch back from his touch, wondering as I did how someone else’s blood had ended up plastered all over him. I was still trembling from the touch of his lips on my skin, staring at my hands now sticky with blood.

“Hey,” Ace said solicitously, dropping his cloak from his shoulders and sitting next to me, the metallic tang still clinging to him, “I’d better wait here with you until Julius gets back. I’m surprised he left you here alone for so long. After all, you never know what kind of dangerous man might try to take advantage of you at night.” His eyes gleamed wickedly as he said that, and I swallowed.

“Good thing you’re here to protect me,” I forced out, and wondered what was taking Julius so long.

Ace laughed once, low in his throat.

“Don’t be too naïve, Alice. Pick your friends carefully, okay? We’re often not what we seem.” He said it so carelessly, like he was commenting about the weather. “You look sort of pale. Are you getting enough fresh air? You should come camping with me sometime. Julius won’t mind.”

“Right,” I said, forcing a smile, breathing through my mouth. “Camping,” I repeated back. “Won’t you get lost?”

“You’re never lost when you’re camping,” Ace said happily.

Just then, Julius walked in, and Ace stood up.

“We should talk.” He trailed Julius out to the balcony. They were gone for a long time. I must have fallen asleep while waiting, because when I opened my eyes again, Julius was at his desk, working by the light of a candle, and he’d draped his coat over me.

I quietly padded over to him, wondering if it had all been a dream after all. I wrapped my arms around him from behind and he stiffened in surprise.

“You keep strange company,” I murmured into his hair. I knew I was behaving oddly- Julius and I weren’t romantically involved, exactly, even if we shared a bed. But I couldn’t bring myself to ask “so, Ace done any mass murdering lately?” Maybe I didn’t really want to know.

Instead I said, “What were you discussing earlier?”

Julius turned to face me, a serious look on his face.

“Here, we are only of value if we perform our functions. Whether or not we wish it were otherwise. Everyone. Without exception.”

“What, no midlife crisis career change?” I said, trying to lighten his mood.

“We play our roles as we are required until our time runs out, and then we are replaced.” I’d always known Julius took his job seriously, but this sort of speech, I didn’t understand. I also thought he should ease up on the clock metaphors a little. It sounded defeatist and it made me sad.

“Alice, are you feeling alright?” I shook my head.

“It’s late, and I’m cold. Come to bed.” I blew out the candle, wondering if Julius had answered my question at all, and what it had to do with the soldier in red.


	2. Possession

The next time Ace graced us with his presence, he informed me we were going camping and he would not take no for an answer. 

Julius didn't even look up from his work. He made a noncommittal sound as Ace took my hand and pulled me out the door, an eager puppy going on a walk. 

I felt his hand gently tugging me along and a sensory memory flashed through my brain- that night, when he’d sucked my wounded finger into his mouth and laved it with his tongue, meeting my eyes with a challenging gaze. I shivered involuntarily just thinking about it, and Ace seemed to misunderstand. 

“Don’t worry. I know exactly where I’m going. See? I even wrote down directions… they’re here somewhere…” 

He patted his uniform in various places, searching for the scrap of paper he finally produced some time later from his boot. 

“Here. You read them to me, and I’ll use the compass to get us there.” He waved what looked like a miniature version of Peter’s pocket watch at me. I wisely said nothing, suspecting that even if it was a compass, it was broken, but deciding to humor him all the same. 

“Okay, go north by northeast until you pass the flower whale field, then realign yourself with the river that isn’t there anymore and go crabwise.” Flower what? I mouthed to myself, unable to make sense of the directions. Ace opened the “compass” and made a great show of consulting it before spinning on his heels and choosing a direction seemingly at random.

“This way!” He said, utterly confident, and I followed. 

 

The result of our striking out in circuitous paths led us to the Heart Castle territory, as I discovered when Ace used his sword like a machete to cut through brush that turned out to be a manicured garden wall. I let out a strangled sound of alarm, but he didn't notice. Or else he ignored me. He hummed cheerfully as he led us deeper and deeper into the mazes there, his satchel swinging over his shoulder as we went.

I cast a worried look back toward the section of maze he’d destroyed, but card soldiers were already hurrying to patch it up before Vivaldi found the mess. Red roses surrounded us as we continued to walk, my feet starting to ache, but the flowers looked wild now, and I hadn't seen a card soldier around for a long time. Thunder rumbled above us as the sky turned dark. Had it ever stormed in Wonderland before? I couldn't remember. 

Ace suddenly halted, opened his satchel, and began to pitch a tent. I watched him, unable to help, biting my lower lip as the clouds rolled in. We made it inside just as the downpour started. 

 

“Where are we?” I asked a bit later during a game of blackjack. Thus far, the wonders of camping had yet to impress me. I only hoped the tent wouldn't blow down or get struck by lightning. 

“The Queen’s private gardens,” he said with a shrug. “Not many people know about this place- it connects to an identical garden in the Hatter mansion via secret passage.”

“But the Hatters are enemies of the Queen, right? Why would they want their territories connected?” 

Ace spread his hands palms up in a gesture of denial.

“Beats me. How lucky that we ended up here! See? I’m not lost at all, I know exactly where we are. I found this place by mistake one day and I've been trying to remember where it was ever since.”

“No,” I said, deciding to stand on my 18 to Ace’s 15, watching to see if he’d take another card or not, “I don’t think you did.” 

I hadn't meant to say it out loud. The card in Ace’s fingers bent, and just like that, the mask of his oblivious demeanor snapped.

He looked startled for a second, and then a predator was staring back at me, hostile. 

“What did you just say?” His tone was menacing. 

“I… nothing,” I lied, eyeing the tent flap and wondering if I should risk the storm. The tent suddenly seemed far too small. A flash of lightning split the darkness, illuminating Ace’s cold, cruel features. 

“I wouldn’t try it,” he said calmly. “If anyone finds you here without me, they’ll probably kill you. They have orders.” His face shifted subtly, and his tone became a mockery of the one I was familiar with. “Besides, even if Vivaldi finds me here, she’ll know I just got lost again.” He grabbed my wrist and gripped it hard enough to hurt. I winced.

“Now. Tell me what you meant by that.” He was too close. I drew in a few shallow breaths. 

“I said, I don’t think you found this place by getting lost. I think-” honestly was the best policy here, right? While I was debating, Ace shook me to make me speak. “You cultivate an image so that people underestimate you… the pieces don’t add up. You've survived this long in a place where someone as clueless as you pretend to be would have stepped in front of a bullet long ago. You use getting lost as an excuse to be gone from your post for long periods of time. You hang out with Julius even though he’s antisocial, and hide your identity- it doesn't make sense!” I said in frustration as the storm howled around me and I eyed Ace’s broadsword wryly. 

“I don’t understand this place!” Ace watched me closely, scarlet eyes glinting oddly as I shouted at him. “People treat life so lightly, and they act like they’re born to fulfill some role that’s more important than anything! And if they hate their jobs, instead of doing anything about it, they’re content to just suffer until they die? What kind of life is that? What kind of stupid world does that to people?”

I was panting now, my educated guesses about Ace having turned into a rant on Wonderland. 

“Exactly,” Ace said fiercely, and then he was on top of me, pinning me to the sleeping bag on the floor of the tent. 

The rain fell steadily around us as he forcibly brought my lips to his, his tongue pushing inside my mouth and insinuating itself everywhere, coaxing my tongue to war against his. All my frustration with this world and the ridiculous rules in it and the fact that no one would TELL me anything came to the surface. I clung to his shoulders, my nails digging in as Ace bit my lower lip hard enough to puncture the skin, then gently kissed it in apology. One hand pulled my hair, making my neck pull back. 

“You’re a very perceptive stranger,” he said, and it sounded like a honeyed threat. His eyes were wild and I made a noise of protest, though what I was disagreeing with, I wasn't sure. 

“And you think for yourself,” he whispered against my shoulder. “That could get you killed.” 

He bit down. 

The jolt of danger-pleasure-pain made me jerk up into him, my hips bucking against the sensation of hard man pressing insistently into me. Is that your gun or are you happy to see me, I thought hysterically, and wondered what my mother would say. Then Ace unfastened the front of my dress and all thought fled. His hand slid up the inside of my thigh and my body jerked toward him without my permission while he laughed. He lingered over the swell of my breast and sucked so long there, where no one had ever touched me before, that he left a bright red mark in the shape of his lips when he finished. 

He looked into my face, eyes glittering feral, and said “if I have to stop every living clock to keep you here, I will. That’s a promise.” 

 

Long after he fell asleep, holding me to him so that I couldn't escape, I pondered his words.

I didn't know what they meant yet, but I believed every word.


End file.
